Snooker table dismantling, transportation and relocation – use GCL Billiards for this specialist service

We are getting a lot of inquiries to remove full size snooker tables and just getting rid of them , TAKE THEM AWAY FREE people say , this is not a FREE SERVICE I’m afraid , two fitters wages van use Fuel insurances all have to be paid for .
We offer a recycling service at a cost of removing , but we have to take the table all apart and remove all none recycling waste from it, cloth rubber metal tacks screws and bolts all have to be removed for our recycler to take the wood away , the slate is also recycled into fire places , but these have to be polished cut to size to make into a fireplace .
the cost to remove a table and recycle is down to distance , BUT please note we do not now take tables up or down stairs , we only remove Ground floor tables with no more than a couple of steps involved which we can ramp .
We used to do the stair work but as you get older this has become too much for us .
We are both in our 60’s now .

I came out of the Army in the year of 1976 , and started to work for my uncle’s firm Trent Valley Pool & Snooker tables Leisure firm in Chettles industrial Estate and office on lincoln Street basford .
I worked alongside my cousin Gary Hume and A sub contract billiard fitter called Mick Robb who had a firm called Belvoir billiards .
I stayed at Trent Valley Leisure for 4 years , then on advice from Mick Robb , I left and moved to Elston & Hopkin of Goldsmith Street Nottingham .
although I still did a bit of work for my Uncle Ron and cousin Gary over the years while I worked for Elston & Hopkin , mainly at weekends or evenings
and my boss at Elston & Hopkin did knew that I helped them out now and again . although their work and sales where nationwide and E&H where local east midlands mainly very little outside a 50 to 80 mile radius
.so no conflict of interest .
John hopkin was a very good Employer and Boss .

In 1980 Elston & hopkin where just being relocated from the very old Empire Theatre Building on goldsmith Street Nottingham where they had a billiard hall and a very fine fitted out Solid Mahogany sales counter for billiard table spares . cue sales and so on .
I also got married in 1980 to my Wife Carol , who I am happy to say we are still together after 39 years of marriage and have two Daughters Helen and Kimberley and in 2018 our first Grand child Emily arrived .~
Sorry no Boys to carry on the business .
Elston & hopkin moved into a workshop on Canal Street , also now demolished , and then into the Newark Street premises from 1980 .
having a 18 table billiard hall , office and workshop on the top floor .
of Davisella house right on the corner of Newark street & Manvers Street .
Elston & hopkin moved out in the early 2000s and sold out to Universal logic in 2004 , I went with the firm to work out of a warehouse in Gainsborough Lincolnshire for the next 7 years .
I look back on the 43 years I have been working as a Billiards fitter .
I have learnt from everyone around me from my Uncles firm and Gary Hume to Mick Robb who was a big influence in my work , to Roger Perczynski and Alan Pykett at Elston & hopkin .
I also learnt a bit of Computer presentation and promotion from my last boss Ted Roberts .
I have had my ups and downs , but became self employed in May 2012 when I had started GCL billiards .


I have met some characters , and worked for some very famous people , as you can imagine it is not everyone who has a room for a full size billiard table , and most celebs and sports personalities do at sometime in their life have ownership or inherit through a house sale a full size table .
But I get as much satisfaction working for normal working folk like myself as I do the high society and famous clientele .
I look upon myself as the Caretaker in my time period of the billiard tables I work on .
I am now approaching 65 years of age , and starting to feel the aches and pains of fitting such heavy tables .
a bit of arthritis , a bad knee joint from my football days , and the normal getting old feeling that you feel creeping up on you .
To the point that upstairs locations are now null and void and no go areas .
let the younger fitters lift slate upstairs or into a basement .
So I do not do this type of heavy lifting anymore , one bad job could put me off work for a long time so why risk it , just ground floor to ground floor locations and the van loading if I wish to carry on to my 70’s
I do not know how long I will be doing this line of work , but I do aim to get to 70 years old at least full time .
So at least another 5 years and two months to go yet .
HEALTH PERMITTING of course .
and maybe do 3 days a week then 2 days a week until retirement , but it is not unusual for 80 year old fitters to still be fitting tables and doing Re-cloths , At Elston and Hopkin they had an old fitter called Joe doing it until he was 80 odd years old .
he fully retired just before I started there .

We do not own a snooker or pool club , but if you do require to find a club to play local to us , try Stapleford cue Club they are the closest snooker club to me 2 mile down the road .
Stapleford Cue club is situated at
148 Derby Road behind the pizza hut take away .
Stapleford
Nottingham.
NG9 7AY
tel 01159 394 504

if you are very close to Derby then try
Cueball
under rollerworld access to right in carpark
Derby DE21 4AW
tel 01332 360924

other side of Nottingham then try
Newark cue club
41 Barker Gate
NG24 1UA
tel 01636 612030

I get many phone calls asking if we are open to book a table to play on ?
We are not advertised as a snooker club , we are a Billiards /Snooker / Pool table or as a collective a Cue sports table MAINTENANCE company
This means we work on tables repairing or maintaining them .
our other business is long term contract of coin operated pool table hire to pubs and clubs we do not own our own club .
I am sorry to say it is getting beyond a joke at how many people phone us up sometimes at 12 to 2am in the morning and Today ( Christmas Day ) of all days to ask what time we shut or are we open today.
we suspect these are Taxi Drivers knocking off work or taking a break and wanting somewhere to play snooker or pool .
I do not know of any all nighter snooker clubs most close at 12pm at the latest .

but just to refresh what we are about .

This is what we do

If you require to book a table try Stapleford cue club they are the closest snooker/pool club to me
AND THIS WHAT A SNOOKER CLUB LOOKS LIKE

stapleford cue club

Cueball in Derby pool room and plenty of full size snooker tables

Newark cue club 41 Carter gate Newark Nottinghamshire NG24 1UA ………….tel 01636 612030 for booking to play on pool and snooker tables .

Hunters Bar Grantham 1 Union Street , Grantham next to lidl’s , NG31 6NZ……………… tel 01476 579493
Hunters bar has 7 UK pool , 4 american pool , and 6 full size snooker tables to play on .

Local job for me today just 4 hours to strip and clean slates , re-cloth cushions and bed in Strachan 6811 tournament cloth 30 oz weight , plus change one middle net . plus check and adjust levels .
Nice easy local day for me .

This week I had the pleasure of working on this very nice large bulbous fluted leg Burroughs & Watts Billiard / snooker Table circa around 1910 .
My client was having problems with the rubber not bouncy enough , and the pockets where not all the same size .
I stripped the table down to find the last re-rubber by Burroughs and Watts was in 1954 , my client had purchased the table from another firm who had claimed to have completely refurbished the table , this was not the case as the photo of the rubber proved having 54 code year on it .
the other firm had made fantastic job of the re-polish though as the photos show , so full credit to them on that part of the refurb work .

Photo above of the actual rubber I took off the table , showing the 54 date code , most rubber made had a date code on them a practice still used on Northern rubber , which now has a boxed moulded in date code where the year is present then 12 boxes with dots in it showing the expired months , so if a rubber had 24 on it and then 5 boxes with a dot in them , the date of manufacture would be 2024 and the month of May . as can be seen below in this advert by Hainsworth who own the rights to Northern Rubber now .

The above date code on this advert example is 2018 and 7 dots in box section = July .
you can see the next year is 2019 an boxes have dots in them , each dimple dot is drilled into the casting as each month ends forming a moulded raised dot , a simple method .
The old method of dating rubber was just a stamp on top of the rubber which is easy to sand off , so that is why they switched to the moulded box dot method of dating rubber .

Above old method of dating rubber was a stamped on painted print , easy to remove .
so that is why they switched to imprinting in moulding, of box month dating and year .

If you see this has been removed you know someone is trying to hide the year it was last done
also look for the yellow dot in Northern Rubber , this to stop the Chinese copying it .
The yellow dot insert is your guarantee it is Genuine Northern Rubber as used on Professional TV Tour tables , by World snooker .

Here are the finished photos of my clients table , as you can see my Client has a very nice bottom of the garden games Room , the table has heated slates , and I have changed the rubber to Northern Rubber , cloth used was Hainsworth Match cloth on the bed , and Hainsworth thicker smart cloth on the cushions , as these take a lot of wear , more so than the bed cloth .
The ball rails where also changed for more modern chromed type with 4 rail bars in them and the two spot end rails where extra long to collect more red balls at that end .
I would also like to point out that the cushions mahogany is extremely heavy , these would play the same as steel block cushions , they where made from Cuban Mahogany , a very hard and heavy wood just like lignum vitae as used on crown bowl balls , and it is extremely rare to find these on a table , and as a Billiards fitter of 48 years now , I can only say I have only come across a dozen tables on my rounds in the past , out of thousands of tables I have worked on to have these fitted .
So if you are lucky enough to have one of these sets of cushions on your table , you are very lucky .
In 1910 a table like this would have been the same price of a terraced or semi detached house , so this table would have been in a very rich household , and from the labels on it from the previous firm that moved it , from the Bath area of UK when it was first installed .

May be a George Wright manufacture . as he used this leg design often of reeded bulbous legs .
The table has very large circumference legs , which are carved reeded type as used by George wright .
there are scrolls at each side of each leg , and you also have scrolls and a Scallop shell carved design in the frame work too .
Ignore the Arthur Perry & Son plaque this is a later re-rubber plaque put on by Perry when they carried out a refurb of cushion rubber ,and it is advertising A Reliance cushion rubber .
A very nice looking table with buttons on the cushions rather than a slide in panel .
I would say circa 1920s
My client is looking for £750 for the table with accessories as shown .
The price is for the table as is on site , and any removal costs will be the buyers responsibility .
I am sure the table requires a re-cloth , looking at the photos too .
But is priced correct at just £750 .as any buyer will need to factor in removal costs and a re-cloth .
this table done up by a billiards firm would be in excess of £5k to £6.5k .


All inquiries to Geoff or Carol at GCL billiards .